This past Saturday, the women’s basketball team defeated Pitt-Greensburg 77-46, marking their second-consecutive non-conference win. 

Waynesburg advanced to 5-6 overall on the season. 

Junior guard Mia Henkins led the Yellow Jackets in scoring with 16 points, and seniors Kalista Friday and Clara-Paige Miller each had nine points themselves. 

Overall, Waynesburg shot 43% from the floor, including 36 points from inside the paint and 32 points coming from their bench. 

Head coach Sam Jones said the win was provided by Waynesburg controlling the pace, and everyone contributed to the effort. 

“We did a really good job defensively forcing some turnovers and just making them play at a pace that we want to play at,” Jones said. “I don’t want to single anyone out, because realistically we had a good rotation going and we had some good pressure on the ball that forced some things from multiple people. It was just a full team effort.” 

Jones continued and said that the turning point of the game was when the team applied pressure defensively. 

“I think when we figured out our press a little bit, we got some easy turnovers and easy hoops. Then we got the momentum going in our direction, then we kind of settled in on offense, and made better decisions with the basketball afterwards, and got some easy hoops,” Jones said. 

Henkins said the win coming off of a holiday break was great for the team.

“The best part of our win was that it was our first game back from Christmas break. That’s always a tough one because you haven’t played together in a few weeks and there’s always some rust to shake off,” Henkins said. “So, seeing us come out hot and keep up the pace for all 4 quarters was great.” 

The Yellow Jackets now turn their attention back to PAC play for the rest of the season, starting with the Chatham Cougars.

Chatham enters into the game 7-3 overall, however winless in PAC competition starting 0-2 losing to Washington and Jefferson and Bethany. However, Chatham is on an 11-game winning streak versus Waynesburg having not lost to the Yellow Jackets since Jan. of 2019. 

Last season Chatham outscored Waynesburg 155-113 in the two meetings, however the Cougars are missing their top point scorer from last season in Ashley Louden. 

Waynesburg has also been able to have a team approach in terms of scoring, as four different Yellow Jackets scored 10+ points against Chatham last season. 

Both teams are the top two scoring teams in the PAC this season with less than a point separating the two, as both teams score 72+ points per game. Chatham also has the best defense in the PAC too, holding opponents to 53.1 points per game. 

The Yellow Jackets are set to kick off their next 14 games of the season all in PAC play starting with Chatham in Pittsburgh tonight. The game tips off at 5 p.m.